---
title: A politician promises "investment in our roads". What does it mean i… — Soft words for hard things: politics a… · tree and pragmatics
description: A politician promises "investment in our roads". What does it mean in plain words? Test 11 · ★ of lesson 24 «Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin» of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's
---

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# Test 11 · ★ · Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A politician promises "investment in our roads". What does it mean in plain words?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** politician, investment · **What happens:** promise, mean · **To what, where:** investment, roads

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This is test 11 · ★ of lesson 24 «Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin» of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: [the test at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/euphemisms/24-government-spin/#t11).

## The question {#question}

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 1:* A politician promises "investment in our roads".

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:24-government-spin:t11:1
# text = A politician promises "investment in our roads".
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	politician	politician	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	promises	promise	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	investment	investment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	roads	road	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **promise** *speech: promise* | present | a politician | investment |  | our roads |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent investment=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

<!-- .note -->
*Sentence 2:* What does it mean in plain words?

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:24-government-spin:t11:2
# text = What does it mean in plain words?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	obj	_	_
2	does	do	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	mean	mean	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	plain	plain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	words	word	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mean** | present · do-support | investment |  |  |  |  | in plain words | vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Pivot what=Theme in word=Attribute |

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Government spending on roads

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:24-government-spin:t11:o1:1
# text = Government spending on roads
1	Government	government	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	compound	_	_
2	spending	spending	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	on	on	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	roads	road	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Buying shares in a road company

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:24-government-spin:t11:o2:1
# text = Buying shares in a road company
1	Buying	buy	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	shares	share	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obj	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	road	road	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	company	company	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **buy** | gerund |  | shares |  | a road company |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent share=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Selling the roads

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:24-government-spin:t11:o3:1
# text = Selling the roads
1	Selling	sell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	roads	road	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sell** | gerund |  | the roads |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent road=Theme |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Putting money in a bank

```conllu
# sent_id = question:euphemisms:24-government-spin:t11:o4:1
# text = Putting money in a bank
1	Putting	put	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
3	in	in	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	bank	bank	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **put** | gerund |  | money |  | a bank |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent money=Theme in bank=Destination |

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**Text:** the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (`world/data/school/`), as the course runner gave them to the student. **Trees:** Mova's own parse — the `en` model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

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- ← previous: [Soft words for hard things: politics a…, test 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/24-government-spin/t10/)
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